A 16-year-old boy shot to Limelight on Saturday, March 30, after reports emerged that he was responsible for the pregnancy of three girls in Kibera, Nairobi.
The boy, whose real name has not been revealed, is said to have been in illicit affairs with the girls aged between 13 and 16, since November last year.
In an interview with a local media, two of the girls described the boy as cool and charming.
One of girls, 16, said she first met the boy during a photo shoot.
“I met him during a photo shoot and from that day we kept in touch with each other. After one and half month, I realised I was pregnant. He later denied responsibility when I confronted him,” she said.
To her surprise, she would later learn the boy was dating another girl in the neighbour hood.
For the younger girl, 13, the boy wooed her with gifts after she proved not to be an easy target.
The gifts would later put her in trouble, she said.
After revealing to the boy that she was expectant, he denied responsibility of the pregnancy. This led to the girl’s mother reporting the incident at a local police station.
The boy was arrested, detained for one month before he was released.
The third girl, who was not featured in the interview, is also said be a few months pregnant.
The revelations come at a time the proposal to lower the age of sexual consent from 18 years to 16 years has elicited mixed reactions among many Kenyans.
Three appellate judges, Roselyn Nambuye, Daniel Musinga and Patrick Kiage have called for a candid national discussion on this sensitive and important matter.
They argue that 16-year-olds teenagers are already engaging in sex and have the ability to make decisions on what they want to do with their bodies.
To some Kenyans, the move is too risky.
Dr Njoki noted, “Nobody is going to give you any [real] sex education except abstinence only. So there are many who would stake their lives on maintaining your illiteracy on condoms and contraception despite any change in law,” she explained.
“That means that if you are a girl, it is a setup for you to really embody being an emerging key population for contracting HIV and other STIs (girls and women aged 16 to 24 are the new population with higher and higher risks associated with these),” she added.
“I’m strongly against lowering the age of consent to 16! This will open floodgates where old men (paedos and perves) can have sex with children and entrench #ChildMarriage. Can the new Education CS oppose this strongly? All men with daughters and sisters oppose this!” Samuel Gachagua tweeted.
Some sided with the judges.
“With Blue Band & other enhanced foods, age should be 12 years. Nowadays a child of [six] years knows everything and can even seduce an adult, judges are right,” he said.
“With Blue Band & other enhanced foods, age should be 12 years. Nowadays a child of [six] years knows everything and can even seduce an adult, judges are right,” he said.
Read:Death Threats As Mother Seeks Justice For Defiled Nine Year Old Daughter
According to a recent Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) report on teenage pregnancy prevalence, Narok county topped the list with a rate of 40%. Homa Bay County comes in second with 33%, in the third position was West Pokot (29%), Tana-River and Nyamira (28%) and in the sixth position was Samburu with 26.
Further, a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), revealed that nearly 378,400 adolescent girls in Kenya aged between 10 and 19 years became pregnant between July 2016 and June 2017.
A total of 28,932 girls aged between 10 and 14 years were impregnated, while 349,465 girls were between 15 to 19 years.
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